The present invention relates to steering locks and relates more particularly to such an automobile steering lock which is mounted on the steering wheel of an automobile to limit degree of its spinning freedom.
Various types of steering locks for vehicles, for example, automobiles, have been disclosed; however, most of them have the drawbacks of a complicated structure and a high manufacture cost. For example, such drawbacks can be found in the patents of U.S. Pat. No. 5,718,133 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,671,619. FIG. 6 shows the structural design of the cited patent of U.S. Pat. No. 5,718,133. The clipping element 3 is a pivoting piece that can engage the steering wheel and an auxiliary block 4 is mounted on it to grip steering wheels of different size. The whole mechanism consists of a screw 41, an elastic element 42, and a sliding block 4, and an additional recess is required on the inside of the rotary piece 3 to allow the displacement of the sliding block, thus complicating the entire structure of the device. FIG. 7 is the FIG. 5 of the cited patent of U.S. Pat. No. 5,671,619 showing the detailed structure of a similar steering lock, which in general consists of three parts, namely, two coupling hemispherical casings 1, a clamping plate 2 and a partition plate 16. Thus, it is complicated in structure and costly.
An object of the present invention is to provide a more reliable and less expensive steering lock with the simplest possible structure and the lowest possible cost, which can be applied to steering wheels of different thickness.
According to one aspect of the present invention, it provides a kind of lock that can lock up the steering wheels of vehicles. It resembles a cross in general, and consists of a base with a lock body, the base has arched cases stretching out to both wings, and the arched case in arched shape has a U-shaped gripping recess for engagement with a portion of the steering wheel of the vehicle, while its radian being in conformity with that of the steering wheel being locked. On the outer end of the base is seated a lock body, whose keyhole is visible on the front surface. On the other end of the base opposite to the lock is an outward extending blocking rod which is set on the top of the dashboard of a vehicle. The present invention characterizes in that there is a rotary clipping element that extends transversely over the U-shaped recess for the purpose of locking on the base. The clipping element comprises two parts, in which the main body is in the shape of a plate and the column part at the end closing the pivot substantially takes the form of a cylinder. The pivot runs through the central hole of the cylinder. On the arc cylindrical surface of the cylinder there is a recessed keyhole, which locks the clipping element cooperating with the lock pin in the lock body. On the inside of the flat region of the clipping element is a bearer, which is fixed on the flat region of the lock by means of the fixture on the flat region of the clipping element. The bearer fixture can be a short protruding convex cylinder of the shape of a column roughly at the center of the flat region, while substantially at the center of the bearer there is a corresponding hole. They are removably jointed in the manner of shrink fit. The bearer may be hard as well as soft and it may be in the shape of a square.
The advantages of the present invention lies in that the general structure of the apparatus is greatly simplified and the cost is considerably reduced because one of the two hemispherical cases of the main body of the conventional steering lock is replaced with a flat-type clipping element. Because most part of the lock according to the present invention is made of aluminum alloy, the lock is light yet its strength and resistance against pick remain. The present invention can also be applied to steering wheels of different size.
Below is a detailed description of the present invention with reference to the preferred embodiments and the attached drawings.